1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to beer dispensing systems, and more particularly, to high volume beer dispensing systems.
High volume beer dispensing systems are required in present day sports stadiums and arenas where it is necessary to provide beer to large numbers of people in a relatively short period of time. In general, it is not desirable to serve beer in original containers, i.e., bottles/or cans, since these containers may be thrown at the sporting participants or other spectators by individuals consuming the beer. It therefore becomes necessary to provide beer in light-weight drinking containers such as plastic or paper cups. Such containers do not present a hazard to the sporting participants or spectators. Furthermore, maintainance of the stadium or arena is much easier when cups are utilized rather than bottles or cans. When light-weight containers are utilized, the problem of pouring beer quickly into large numbers of containers becomes a considerable problem. It is of course well known that when beer is poured slowly into a container, it will pour flat, i.e., without a head. When beer is poured fast, a large head will form and only a portion of the container will be filled with beer.
The magnitude of this problem becomes overwhelming when one considers that many sports stadiums and arenas seat at least 50,000 people and a concessionaire, on a warm day, may find itself pouring as many as 25,000 cold beers during a 21/2 hour sporting event. In other words, the concessionaire will be asked, on the average, to pour approximately 10,000 beers per hour or about three beers per second.
In order to meet these needs, the number of concession stations may be scattered around a stadium with each station pouring beers as fast as they can to meet this demand. Even so, it is difficult to pour beer fast enough in certain instances to keep up with the demand due to the tendency of the beer to form a head when it is poured rapidly.
2. The Prior Art
In the prior art beer dispensing systems, the beer is stored in kegs located within a refrigerated storage area with the temperature of the storage area maintained at approximately 36.degree. F. The beer then moves out of the storage area through dispensing lines to a plurality of taps where it is dispensed into drinking containers which are passed beneath the taps. With this arrangement, it is difficult to pour beer fast in sufficient quantity to meet the demand. Since concessionaires strive to maintain the maximum per capita, i.e., sales per spectator, pouring beer at a rate sufficient to meet the demand is very important. In general, these prior art systems have not been able to meet this demand and the concessionaires have not maximized their per capita.